


McLaren Sting: The Art of Matchmaking

by BearWithAHat



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Crime jokes, Deception, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Getting Together, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, PowerPoint, Sting Operation, Undercover Missions, but like not really, its very brief though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:40:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24202996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BearWithAHat/pseuds/BearWithAHat
Summary: Tired of seeing Lando sulk around with heart-eyes for Carlos, George and Alex come up with a plan to get the two of them together. Cue the McLaren sting operation, with the help of Charles and Pierre.
Relationships: Alexander Albon/George Russell, Lando Norris/Carlos Sainz Jr
Comments: 10
Kudos: 137





	McLaren Sting: The Art of Matchmaking

**Author's Note:**

> in case anyone doesn't know, a sting operation is a deceptive mission where authorities go undercover to catch someone committing a crime. obviously there's no crimes here lol, I've just been watching the show 'art of the heist' and wanted to write something inspired by it :)

George threw an arm around Alex's shoulders and nosed at his neck, making his boyfriend blush and mumble something under his breath. They were at George's hotel room on a free day, with Lando curled up on the chair next to them. The three of them were supposed to be watching a movie Lando had picked, but the young couple had been more invested in cuddling each other.

"Can you two please stop doing couple shit?" Lando groaned, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

George grinned at him and said, "nope. It's my room, I can appreciate my man if I want to." Alex shifted away from him a bit, more courteous to Lando's irritation than George was.

"Well why did you invite me then? You can _appreciate_ him a lot more thoroughly without me here," Lando complained. As much as he loved spending time with his friends, recently he had been feeling like a third wheel when they all met up. The two of them were normally hand in hand, swapping cheesy pickup lines, and Lando was tired of sitting awkwardly through it. 

"What do you think we did before you got here?" George insinuated, which earned him a light slap on the arm from Alex.

"Sorry Lando, didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," Alex piped up. Lando just frowned and tried to pay attention to the movie onscreen again. They all watched in silence from then on. George kept his eyes on the screen, but every time Alex glanced over at him, he had a far off look on his face which normally meant that he was coming up with some ridiculous idea.

When the movie ended, George instantly spoke up.

"You know Lando, maybe you're annoyed by us doing 'couple shit' because you've put off having a certain talk with Carlos for so long," George suggested with an air of false innocence.

Lando felt his heart skip a beat and squeaked out, "what talk? What do you mean?"

"It's pretty obvious that you like him. Like, painfully obvious," George said. 

Lando stared at him with his mouth agape, unsure of how he was supposed to respond. "I do not! And what do you mean it's obvious?" he protested.

"Dude, you stare at him with cartoony heart eyes every time he walks by you. You gush every detail about your conversations with him to us, and you practically melt every time he hugs you or brushes by you. Now I'm no romance expert, but holy shit Lando you need to talk to him," George begged him, an exasperated sigh following when Lando still refused. "Back me up here, Alex," George whispered loudly, tugging on Alex's sleeve.

Alex folded his hands and solemnly said, "I would rather not take sides here, but he's right Lando. Face it, you've got feelings for Carlos."

"That doesn't mean it's any of your business," Lando insisted with a pout, "besides, it's not like he would ever feel the same, so why should I even bother?"

His anxiety over Carlos not feeling the same way had been the main reason why the young Brit had sworn to never have said conversation. Now Lando was kicking himself for not trying harder to hide his feelings, since his friends were giving him trouble over it now and probably would continue to do so until he talked to Carlos about it.

"Hey don't say that, you can't know for sure until you talk to him," Alex kindly assured him with a smile. 

George sprung up from the couch and put his hands decidedly on his hips. "Exactly. So, let's figure out what you're gonna say to Carlos when you have a chat with him, which you will definitely be doing," he announced with a pointed look at Lando. 

Lando shook his head and pretended to check the time on his phone. He stood up and began to shuffle to the door, calling out, "I don't have time for this, I have to go to, uh, the..circus?" as he fumbled with the door handle.

George was going to attempt to get him to stay, but Alex put a hand on his arm and told him to just let Lando go for now. 

"Alright, have fun with the other clowns!" George smirked as Lando waved goodbye and quickly let the door fall shut behind him.

When he turned back to Alex, his boyfriend was trying to look serious, but George could see he was trying and mostly failing to hold back a laugh. 

"That wasn't very nice, you know. We're not gonna convince him to talk to Carlos, even though we both know that's what's been making him so grumpy recently," Alex murmured, wrapping his arms around George and embracing him fondly. 

The shorter of the two sighed and rested his head against Alex's shoulder. "I know. But we've gotta do something to get them together. I just haven't figured out what," he replied. 

* * *

Alex didn't ask any questions when George was in the bedroom with the door closed for three hours. Shortly after Lando had left, he had told Alex he had something to plan, and had been in the bedroom ever since.

Slowly, Alex approached the door and knocked softly. A couple seconds passed before he heard, "what is it?"

"Dinner's ready, unless you're too busy with...whatever you're doing in there?" he said. The door swung open and there George was, and he kissed Alex's cheek on his way to the kitchen. Alex peeked inside the bedroom. Nothing was too out of order, no messes had been made. The only evidence that George had even been doing anything was a notebook sitting on top of the bed with a couple of pens and highlighters.

Over dinner, George brought up what Alex had been waiting to ask him about.

"So for the past couple hours, I've been coming up with some plans for how to get Lando to talk to Carlos, and I think I've got some good ideas," he began excitedly. 

Alex nearly choked on his glass of water. "Alright then. I don't know how to convince you not to meddle with your friend's love lives, so what did you come up with?" he asked. He wasn't sure if pushing Lando to do something he seemed adamant to avoid was a fantastic idea, but George was determined to get involved. 

"I'm thinking we stage an intervention. We sit Lando down with Carlos, and we facilitate the conversation. Maybe have someone like Seb there as parental support. What do you think?" George proposed casually. 

"Babe, I love you with all my heart, but that is a terrible idea," Alex stated plainly. 

George frowned and dramatically sighed, "how is it a bad idea? I've even come up with some talking points!"

"Lando would have a heart attack if we forced him into that situation. You've got to come up with something more covert. Hell, I'd even say that you should first find out if Carlos feels the same about him before you try and get Lando to confess to him," Alex explained. As he went on, George nodded and considered his boyfriend's input.

"Alex, you're a genius," he whispered. George sprinted out of the kitchen before Alex could respond, and returned with his notebook and writing materials in hand.

"Call Charles and tell him to be here in an hour, and tell him to bring someone he trusts. We're gonna need more people in on this," George said, flipping to a new blank page in the notebook. 

Deciding not to ask any more questions, Alex did exactly that.

* * *

An hour later, there was a knock on the door. Alex went to answer it, seeing as George was typing away on his laptop and clearly had no intention of getting up. Sure enough, there stood Charles when he opened the door.

"Hey Alexander, mind telling me what you needed me for now?" Charles greeted, walking into the room with Pierre trailing behind him.

"Thanks for coming guys. And I think George can answer that better than me, I'm not entirely sure what he's planning," Alex explained, leading the two into the sitting room. They all sat down, and a minute later, George came into the room with his laptop and notebook in his arms.

"Thank you for coming on short notice. I promise this won't be a waste of your time," he said as he placed the computer down on the coffee table and opened up a powerpoint. 

Alex glanced over at Charles and Pierre, who looked on in confusion. George sat down beside the table and clicked onto the first slide.

"I'm sure you're wondering what we asked you to come here for. Earlier, Lando came over and we ended up in a conversation about how he is in love with Carlos but refuses to talk to him about it," George began, talking clearly and professionally as if he were presenting a business model.

"Being the great friend I am, I decided that I was going to intervene and figure out a way to make Lando confess his feelings. Then my lovely boyfriend over there told me that it would be a better idea to first find out if Carlos feels the same way about him," he went on, gesturing to Alex who shyly waved.

"Now, we can't just straight up ask him, because I'm afraid that he would figure out that we're up to something. Instead, I propose that we pull off a sting operation. We'll learn what we need to know without Carlos getting suspicious, and it'll all work out perfectly," George explained. He went through the multiple powerpoint slides as he talked, though the graphs and charts on them didn't exactly make sense to the three other boys.

Pierre raised his hand and sheepishly asked, "uh, what's a sting operation?"

"It's an undercover operation where you're trying to catch someone doing a crime. Except for us we're not trying to see if Carlos is a criminal, we're trying to see if he's in love with Lando," he answered, "we also don't really need to go undercover. We just need to disguise our intentions, that's the undercover part."

"And...what exactly would we have to do?" Charles asked, narrowing his eyes and leaning back into the cushions of the couch. Alex thought it was ridiculous but also rather fitting that George had wanted to involve Charles in this; the man definitely had a flair for the dramatic, and this was perhaps the most dramatic thing Alex had heard in a while.

"Great question. I've worked out how it would work, and basically we need to pretend that we're just sitting down and having a casual chat with Carlos. Alex and I will sit down with him and start talking about some cheesy relationship thing. Then, Charles will come in a few minutes later and make fun of us for talking about 'couple shit' as Lando so gracefully put it earlier. Charles will then use that as a way to ask a question that indirectly asks if Carlos has a girlfriend or boyfriend," George relayed, and Alex was impressed by how thought out it was.

"Sorry to interrupt, but what kind of question would I need to ask?" Charles asked, seeming to genuinely consider going along with the idea.

"Something based on whatever Alex and I were talking about. Like, if we're talking about going to some fancy restaurant, you could ask him something like, 'hey have you ever been there with your _girlfriend_?' But we know he isn't dating anyone right now, so then we'll be like, 'oh well is there anyone you're _interested in?'_ when he says that he doesn't have a girlfriend. From there, we'll have to sort of ad lib a bit to discreetly find out if he likes Lando," George went on energetically.

His three friends simply watched and listened.

"After we find out what we need to know, we'll have to make a smooth getaway. This is where Pierre will come in. Pierre, you won't have to even be in the building if you don't want to be. All you need to do is call me or Alex when I text you a signal, and we'll act like we've been asked to go somewhere and we'll leave. A couple minutes later, Charles will say that he needs to, I don't know, go to a meeting or something of the sorts. We'll all meet up after that and discuss our findings. If Carlos is interested in Lando, we'll need to come up with a way to convince him to talk to Lando about it, since Lando refuses to be the one to start that conversation," he finished with a smile.

Alex knew that there was no way George wouldn't rope him into this even if he said he didn't want to be part of the operation, so he didn't bother protesting.

"Are you guys willing to help?" George asked.

Pierre and Charles looked at one another as if they were communicating telepathically. After a brief moment, Charles shrugged and said, "sure, why not. Sounds rather interesting, and I for one would love to see Lando quit sulking around because he's pining for Carlos." 

"I guess I have nothing better to do. My role in this sounds pretty easy anyways," Pierre agreed.

George grinned widely and clapped his hands together. "Awesome. I've noticed that normally Carlos sits down in the hotel lobby in the mornings, so let's plan to go through with this tomorrow morning. Alex and I will go downstairs and see if he's there. If he is, I'll text Charles to come down in two minutes and join the conversation," he said.

It was established that the four of them would meet up in George's room again in the morning to review their plan before they checked if Carlos was sitting in the lobby like he normally was.

When Charles and Pierre left, Alex grabbed George from behind and picked him up, running to the bedroom with his boyfriend yelling in his arms to be put down.

Instead of putting George down, Alex rolled onto the bed with George still in his hold. They playfully wrestled with one another until Alex had the younger underneath him. He leaned down to capture his lips in a kiss.

"I didn't know you had it in you to be such a scheming little thing," Alex whispered once they broke apart. 

George smiled up at him and responded with, "what are you going to do about it?"

"I think I'm going to _appreciate_ you very thoroughly."

* * *

The next morning, Charles and Pierre dutifully showed up at George's room like they had agreed to. They went over the plan once more, with George giving a (rather unnecessary in Alex's opinion) pep talk to their little squad.

"Remember, sting operations can go awry at any moment. If Carlos has to leave before we're done, then there's not much we can do. If it seems like he's suspicious of us, change the conversation briefly to make things seem more natural," George said as they prepared to leave.

Pierre stayed behind as the plan called for him to do so, as did Charles to wait for George to give him the go ahead if Carlos was downstairs. Wishing them luck, the two watched as George and Alex walked down the hall and to the elevator.

"God I hope he's down there. I'd rather just get this whole thing over with," Alex sighed on the way down. He wasn't nervous about it, as much as he was convinced that they could have easily just openly asked Carlos what they were seeking to find out.

"Keep cool, Alex. Cucumbers, man, cool as a cucumber," George whispered to him as the elevator doors opened and they strode out into the hotel lobby. Sure enough, there sat Carlos in an armchair, drinking a cup of coffee and looking at something on his phone.

" _Bingo._ I'll text Charles, and then we'll head over there," muttered George. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent Charles a quick conformation text before taking Alex's hand and putting his phone away. "It's showtime," he said, leading Alex over to the sitting area and pretending to be surprised by seeing Carlos there.

"Oh hi Carlos! How are you?" George cheerfully greeted. He sat down on a loveseat across from the man in question, pulling Alex down beside him and clutching his hand.

Carlos put his phone down and gave a friendly smile. "Morning guys. I'm doing alright, just wanted to sit down before heading to the track later. And how are you guys?" he said.

"Pretty good, especially since I've gotten to spend so much time with this cutie," George cooed, squeezing Alex's hand and kissing his cheek.

Alex looked down in embarrassment and said, "aw, babe you're too nice." Technically he was acting according to their plan, but he still found it genuinely flattering.

"You guys are cute. I take it you are happy together?" Carlos asked. He sat casually and didn't seem to be aware that he was in the middle of a coordinated conversation, meant to get him to reveal something personal. 

"Oh yes, George makes my life complete," Alex commented with a beaming look at his boyfriend. 

"He's the best. Except recently we haven't been able to figure out what we should do for our next date. I say we should go to some fancy restaurant but Alex wants to um, have a picnic in a park," George exclaimed with a sigh. Luckily Carlos didn't seem to notice when he briefly hesitated. 

Glancing in the direction of the elevator, Alex held his breath briefly, waiting for Charles to show up. He exhaled with relief as Charles appeared a moment later.

"Both of those sound like fun. You could do one for this date and then do the other one next time," Carlos suggested as Charles wandered over, taking a seat beside him.

"Hello, what's everybody up to over here?" Charles asked with his normal cool, charismatic air. He looked from Carlos to the couple, shooting them a quick wink.

"Alex and I are unsure about where our next date should be and we were just getting Carlos' opinion," George explained. Charles nodded and got a thoughtful look on his face.

"They're boring you with their sappy couple stuff?" he jokingly asked Carlos. Everything was going to plan so far.

Carlos shook his head and replied, "I don't mind. I think it's adorable actually."

George and Alex both waited for Charles to ask _the question,_ which would really kick off the start of their investigation. They tried not to let their anticipation show in the long second that passed before their friend asked; the next few moments would really make or break their entire operation. 

"Hmm...Carlos, what do you normally do with your girlfriend? Maybe they can use that idea instead of bickering among themselves," Charles asked sweetly, cocking his head and smiling innocently.

Carlos looked down at his lap and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Eh, I'm not dating anyone at the moment," he revealed, and Alex noted a long sigh following the Spaniard's answer.

All three of them pretended to be shocked, which was an Oscar worthy performance in George's opinion. It briefly occurred to him that he should take up acting if professional racing ended up not working out as well as he was hoping it to.

"Really? That's surprising since you're so um, attractive," Alex blurted out. Instantly he winced at how weird what he said and how he said it sounded. George had to bite his lip and squeeze his hand to avoid bursting out laughing at what his boyfriend said.

"Yeah, I'm surprised nobody's tried to snatch you up yet," Charle purred, and the way he managed to sound so naturally smooth and coy went over Alex's head. Charles continued, "surely there's someone you're at least interested in?"

With a smile, Carlos nodded and said, "yes, there's somebody I've been meaning to ask out. I have been hesitant to though because we are good friends and I don't know how to ask him out without potentially ruining our friendship, you know?"

The three of them nodded, pleased with where the conversation was going so far. Carlos admitting he was interested in someone, someone who was a _he,_ was good progress. Alex didn't trust himself to say much else without either cracking under pressure or forgetting how to talk, thus he let George take over on his behalf.

"Hey I get that. When I first told Alex I was into him, I was nervous that he would be freaked out or think it was some weird joke. Do you think your friend might react like that?" George questioned. 

"Maybe. He's a really funny guy and we joke around a lot, so I could see him thinking I was trying to make fun of him," Carlos sighed. Before George or Charles could ask another question, the Spaniard continued with, "but I'd really like to talk to him about it soon, I mean he's got the cutest smile and I'd just like to pick him up squeeze him. I can't pretend I don't like him forever," and Charles nodded along sympathetically.

"Shoot your shot then, Carlos! Who'd say no to you?" Charles said flirtatiously, and if it were in any other situation, Alex would have thought Charles was the one into Carlos, not Lando.

George discreetly pulled out his phone and texted Pierre as Carlos and Charles continued to talk, with the latter casually asking more questions. A minute later, Alex's phone rang, and he saw it was Pierre and answered with his best normal-sounding _hello?_

"Uhh George texted me so I'm calling for you guys to leave. Pretend I'm saying something that is a good reason for you to leave," Pierre said in a hushed voice. 

Alex was quiet for a few seconds to give the illusion that he was listening to someone talk for longer than Pierre actually talked.

"Okay, sounds great! We'll get ready to leave shortly. Thanks," Alex said cheerfully. He ended the call and tucked his phone away before standing up and pulling George with him.

"George and I got invited to some last minute plans, so we've gotta get going now. Nice seeing you guys," he said with a forced smile. He and his boyfriend wished Charles and unassuming Carlos goodbye, and then left the sitting area and rushed to the elevator. They both let out a breath and glanced at each other once the door closed. Charles would be leaving just a few minutes after them, and they couldn't wait to discuss their findings as a group.

"That was the most stressful ten minutes of my life," Alex laughed. George grinned and pulled him into a hug, pressing a heated kiss to his lips.

"I think we did pretty good out there, though Charles was the backbone of the important parts of the conversation," George whispered against his lips.

When the elevator doors opened and they were back on their floor, they waited in the hallway for Charles to show up. A few minutes later, Charles ran up from the staircase and the three of them immediately began to chatter with one another, too excited to even go into George's room.

"Was I weird? I felt like I was being weird the whole time," Alex worriedly confessed.

"Aww no babe you weren't being weird," George reassured him, patting his shoulder.

"I know he didn't explicitly say he has the hots for Lando, but let's be real, who else matches the descriptions he gave?" Charles insisted. 

"Oh for sure, he's definitely going to ask Lando out," George agreed. 

All three of them froze and turned around when a voice behind them said, "who's asking Lando out?" There stood Carlos, the very same Carlos they had been talking to just minutes earlier. 

Shit. Guess they didn't consider that all of the grid was on the same floor, George internally cursed to himself. Luckily, Charles was quick to come up with an answer on the spot.

"Pierre is going to ask Lando out later. He's been so in love with him for a while now. I know because we're friends and he tells me everything," Charles explained sweetly. George and Alex both just nodded along, hoping they didn't look too panicked.

"Do you do that Carlos? Do you share everything and communicate honestly with your close friends? Anyways, I was just going to talk to him about it. He's really nervous," Charles went on. He crossed his arms and continued smiling that damn charming smile.

Carlos looked somewhat worried, biting his lip and fidgeting with his keycard for a second. "Oh," he said quietly, almost inaudibly, "...I hope it goes well for him." 

With that, he offered a weak smile and walked away, presumably to find his room. The three of them waited until he was gone before sharing a mutually worried look. George pulled his key out and unlocked the door, pulling Alex and Charles inside with him. Pierre was sitting on the couch, scrolling on his phone.

" _Shit,_ " George groaned, "what are we gonna do now?"

Charles shrugged and simply said, "I don't think we really need to do anything. Now that he thinks someone else is interested in his little milk boy, he'll have to confess his feelings to Lando today."

Alex wrinkled his nose and said, "please don't ever call Lando a 'little milk boy' ever again. And I sure hope you're right, I don't know if I can do anymore of this scheming stuff."

Pierre padded over to them. "How did it go guys?" the Frenchman asked.

"It went just fine until he heard us talking in the hallway," George mumbled. Alex comfortingly rubbed his back, letting George lean against his shoulder.

"Yeah I kind of came up with a cover story on the spot and I told him you were going to ask Lando out. Obviously you're not actually going to ask him out, but if someone asks, just say that you are and that you're madly in love with him," Charles gushed to Pierre, whose eyes widened and he nearly dropped his phone in shock.

" _Charles, what the fuck_?"

* * *

Lando had enjoyed letting himself sleep in later than usual. After the awkward conversation he had with George the previous day, he wasn't too keen on leaving his room until he was required to go to the track later for his team duties.

The young Brit was lying in bed in his underwear, scrolling through instagram lazily and ignoring the sunlight that filtered in through the crack in the curtains. A hurried knock on the door made him frown and get out of bed, pulling the nearest sweatshirt on and running a hand through his hair to try and look halfway decent.

"Oh hey, what's up?" Lando greeted when he opened the door and saw his teammate standing there. He was a bit concerned when Carlos looked worried and rushed into the room.

"Lando, I need to talk to you," Carlos said, pacing around the room.

Lando sat down on the bed again, crossing his legs and patting the spot next to him. "Alright, I'm listening," he said. Carlos sat next to him and looked deep in thought before he spoke up again. Lando quirked an eyebrow and waited for him to say whatever he seemed so worked up about.

"I don't really know how to say this in any way other than getting straight to the point. Lando, I am in love with you. I don't really expect you to feel the same and I hope it doesn't ruin our friendship or your opinion of me, but I absolutely had to tell you," Carlos breathed out. He looked straight ahead, refusing to meet Lando's gaze.

It was like a train had just hit Lando at full speed. He wanted to smack himself just to make sure he wasn't dreaming, that Carlos was actually here confessing his feelings for him, but he felt glued to the spot and like his limbs were made of cement. His jaw went slack and he knew he was probably making a really dumb looking face.

"...are you going to say something?" Carlos slowly asked, finally turning to look at him.

"You...like me? Like, _like_ like me?" Lando responded in disbelief. 

Carlos gave him a confused look and said, "Why are you saying the word like so many time? I like you way more than just as a friend, I want to date you if you'll let me."

Lando felt the biggest grin settle on his face as he threw his arms around Carlos, tackling him to the bed and nearly crying tears of joy.

"Holy shit Carlos, I've liked you for so long it's not even funny," he exclaimed, nuzzling the Spaniard's jaw and draping himself over him. Carlos laughed heartily and patted his back, wrapping an arm around Lando's waist and pressing his nose into the Brit's hair.

"So, I take it you would like to go out sometime?" he giggled underneath him. 

"Of course," Lando said, "but right now I'd like to stay here like this."

"Me too," Carlos hummed. snuggling Lando as close as possible to him.

* * *

When Lando eagerly texted George, Alex, and Charles later, he knew something was up from the delayed responses with a bit too many question marks and exclamation points. Whatever the hell they had done, he didn't want to know; Lando was just glad to be able to say that Carlos was his _boyfriend_.

**Author's Note:**

> wow this ended up being waaaaay longer than I thought it was going to be! most of it was written in one sitting at ridiculously late at night :)
> 
> as always you can find me on tumblr @esteboo-ocon, if you wanna talk and be friends. I'm lonely so id appreciate a 'hello'! <3


End file.
